Shrewsbury lawn covered in glory

Thursday

Jul 3, 2014 at 6:00 AMJul 3, 2014 at 10:33 PM

SHREWSBURY — Some celebrate the Fourth of July with a big blast, others with a big splash, but Jared Kronlund decided to opt for big art. The front lawn of Jared's home at 8 Straw Hollow Lane has been transformed into a giant American flag created by Jared, a 16-year-old soon-to-be-junior at St. John's High School, and two friends he plays lacrosse with at the school.

By George Barnes TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

SHREWSBURY — Some celebrate the Fourth of July with a big blast, others with a big splash, but Jared Kronlund decided to opt for big art.

The front lawn of Jared's home at 8 Straw Hollow Lane has been transformed into a giant American flag created by Jared, a 16-year-old soon-to-be-junior at St. John's High School, and two friends he plays lacrosse with at the school.

"We thought it would be a really cool thing to do for the Fourth of July and USA in the World Cup," he said as he showed off the 18-by-30-foot flag painted on the lawn.

The flag covers much of the Kronlunds' front lawn. It was done with the assent of Jared's parents, Ken and Susan Kronlund.

"I asked my dad if I could do it and he said, 'As long as you make the stars right,'" he said.

The project was inspired partly by fun and partly by patriotism. Jared has something of a military family background. One of his grandfathers went to West Point Military Academy, and a great-great-uncle was a prisoner of war in World War II and survived the Bataan Death March. He said his father is also very patriotic.

Jared said another inspiration for the project came from listening to "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue," a song by country singer Toby Keith.

"It's a song dedicated to soldiers overseas and the hardships their families have to face," he said.

Getting the stars correct was a big challenge for Jared and his friends Dominic Faiola of Auburn and Jake Morgan of Upton. They practiced in the backyard of the house before moving to the front yard, which was to be the final canvas.

It was not a simple project or inexpensive.

"It took five hours to do and a lot of planning," he said.

The planning was in how to ensure the stars were proportional to the stripes and make sure the stripes were straight. In accomplishing this, Jake followed a saying his father often told him, the carpenter's adage: "Measure twice, cut once."

In flag-painting terms, it meant that he spent a lot of time on design before bringing out the red, white and blue paint. He also pondered how to do the painting. The original plan was to use brushes.

"That took too long so we used rollers," he said.

To get the 30-foot-long stripes correct, he said, he used real estate flag markers and tied string to them along the line he measured to avoid going off track. From the roadside, it appears they were successful. All of the lines look straight and the corners sharp.

Mrs. Kronlund said she is proud of her son, not just because the project looked so good when it was finished, but because he came up with the idea and stuck with it until it was completed.

Jared said he has also gotten positive feedback from neighbors and it has become a bit of an attraction.

Mrs. Kronlund said cars were driving through the neighborhood Tuesday night to check out the project.

"Maybe we should put a light on it," she said.

Contact George Barnes at george.barnes@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @georgebarnesTG